Love, Yumi

Book excerpt: "If you don't know me, that's okay. There were many days I didn't know who I was either..." My name is Chiharu Morita. Of course, that is the name on this blog, so that is who I am. The Chiharu you know is only a shadow. Yes, I was in a group called Butterfly Tops. Now I am a composer, the person responsible for some of the pop songs you hear on the radio. Those aren't the reasons you know me, though. You know me because of YUMI. The woman who comes into your living room every night on dramas, music shows, and radio request lines. The most famous woman in the country. Yumi, as you may know, is my childhood friend. We graduated high school and went to audition for a new girl group they were creating. The rest is history. For you, anyway. For me, I still breathe this every day. Because I love Yumi. I have since I was a young girl too stupid to know the words for what I felt. This is my confession. This is the story of not only me, but Yumi too. Of how we left our town and became household names. Of how I fell in love with her and did everything in my power to protect her from the evil in this world. I did not always succeed. I will not rest until you know the truth. All the lies the agencies and labels tried to make us spew will be known. Maybe this will mean the end of what career I have left. But if I don't tell this story, I won't know who I am anymore. I want to be more than "the girl who loved Yumi," and yet it's the only identity I can ever remember having. For better or worse, let us begin. Set in contemporary Japan, "LOVE, YUMI" is the epic journey one woman embarks on to complete the impossible: to save her best friend and the woman she loves from a brutal, all-consuming pop culture world. Contains every situation that entails.